Inside The Bills

One of Buffalo’s most recent pre-draft visitors, Notre Dame OT Zack Martin has been pegged as a perfect fit for Miami’s depleted offensive line after the trade of Jonathan Martin and departure of Richie Incognito after last season’s locker room problems that made national headlines. The problem with that line of thinking is Martin, according to some draft analysts might be off the board several picks before Miami is on the clock at 19.

NFL.com draft analysts Charles Davis and Daniel Jeremiah were asked about the fit of Martin to the Dolphins at 19 in round one in a recent conference call with the media. Both said they would not be surprised if Martin went earlier than that.

“I think if you look on NFL.com or if you look at any mock draft that’s ever been constructed, it’s mandatory that Zack Martin goes to Miami,” Jeremiah said. “When you start putting these things together, you just kind of go, okay, he’s there, they take him, but I will say as we get closer to the draft, there’s certain names… I talked to a general manager the other day, and his name came up, Zack Martin, and he asked me what I thought. I said, ‘I don’t see how Miami could pass on him. He’s too clean.’ And he said, ‘I don’t think he’ll be there when they pick at 19.’

“I think he’s definitely somebody that’s on the move to the point where when you look at Giants are picking at No. 12, maybe that would be surprising a month ago. That wouldn’t shock me if Zack Martin went all the way up that high.”

“I think Zack Martin was going to Miami with the first mock draft, and we might do 100 of them and I’m not sure we ever take him off of that spot,” said Davis. “But if what we’re hearing is accurate, and it seems like there’s a good amount of credibility to it, there are a number of places he could go prior to Miami, and a lot depends on what people see him as; do you see him as a tackle; do you see him as a guard; do you know that they worked him out as a center, as well.

“So Daniel started with the Giants at 12. If St. Louis keeps that pick at 13 and all the premier tackles are off the board already and they went in a different direction with their second pick not being traded or what have you, Zack Martin could make sense there. That’s not out of line.”

Martin’s Senior Bowl performance quelled a lot of teams concerns that his arms, which are a less than ideal 32 7/8ths inches, would limit him as an NFL tackle. Martin performed very well against top flight competition there and in his four years at left tackle for the Irish. So it seems that there are a good number of teams believe in Martin as a first round tackle prospect and the Bills may be one of them.